TextInput

A foundational component for inputting text into the app via a keyboard. Props provide configurability for several features, such as auto-correction, auto-capitalization, placeholder text, and different keyboard types, such as a numeric keypad.

The most basic use case is to plop down a TextInput and subscribe to the onChangeText events to read the user input. There are also other events, such as onSubmitEditing and onFocus that can be subscribed to. A minimal example:

import React, { Component } from "react";
import { TextInput } from "tbox/ui";

const UselessTextInput = () => {
  const [value, onChangeText] = React.useState("Useless Placeholder");

  return (
    <TextInput
      style={{ height: 40, borderColor: "gray", borderWidth: 1 }}
      onChangeText={(text) => onChangeText(text)}
      value={value}
    />
  );
};

export default UselessTextInput;

Two methods exposed via the native element are .focus() and .blur() that will focus or blur the TextInput programmatically.

Note that some props are only available with multiline={true/false}. Additionally, border styles that apply to only one side of the element (e.g., borderBottomColor, borderLeftWidth, etc.) will not be applied if multiline=false. To achieve the same effect, you can wrap your TextInput in a View:

import React, { Component } from "react";
import { View, TextInput } from "tbox/ui";

const UselessTextInput = (props) => {
  return (
    <TextInput
      {...props} // Inherit any props passed to it; e.g., multiline, numberOfLines below
      editable
      maxLength={40}
    />
  );
};

const UselessTextInputMultiline = () => {
  const [value, onChangeText] = React.useState("Useless Multiline Placeholder");

  // If you type something in the text box that is a color, the background will change to that
  // color.
  return (
    <View
      style={{
        backgroundColor: value,
        borderBottomColor: "#000000",
        borderBottomWidth: 1,
      }}
    >
      <UselessTextInput
        multiline
        numberOfLines={4}
        onChangeText={(text) => onChangeText(text)}
        value={value}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

export default UselessTextInputMultiline;

TextInput has by default a border at the bottom of its view. This border has its padding set by the background image provided by the system, and it cannot be changed. Solutions to avoid this is to either not set height explicitly, case in which the system will take care of displaying the border in the correct position, or to not display the border by setting underlineColorAndroid to transparent.

Note that on Android performing text selection in input can change app's activity windowSoftInputMode param to adjustResize. This may cause issues with components that have position: 'absolute' while keyboard is active. To avoid this behavior either specify windowSoftInputMode in AndroidManifest.xml ( https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/activity-element.html ) or control this param programmatically with native code.

Reference

Props

Inherits View Props.

`allowFontScaling`

Specifies whether fonts should scale to respect Text Size accessibility settings. The default is true.

Type	Required
bool	No

`autoCapitalize`

Tells TextInput to automatically capitalize certain characters. This property is not supported by some keyboard types such as name-phone-pad.

characters: all characters.
words: first letter of each word.
sentences: first letter of each sentence (default).
none: don't auto capitalize anything.

Type	Required
enum('none', 'sentences', 'words', 'characters')	No

`autoCompleteType`

Specifies autocomplete hints for the system, so it can provide autofill. On Android, the system will always attempt to offer autofill by using heuristics to identify the type of content. To disable autocomplete, set autoCompleteType to off.

Possible values for autoCompleteType are:

off
username
password
email
name
tel
street-address
postal-code
cc-number
cc-csc
cc-exp
cc-exp-month
cc-exp-year

Type	Required	Platform
enum('off', 'username', 'password', 'email', 'name', 'tel', 'street-address', 'postal-code', 'cc-number', 'cc-csc', 'cc-exp', 'cc-exp-month', 'cc-exp-year')	No	Android

`autoCorrect`

If false, disables auto-correct. The default value is true.

Type	Required
bool	No

`autoFocus`

If true, focuses the input on componentDidMount. The default value is false.

Type	Required
bool	No

`blurOnSubmit`

If true, the text field will blur when submitted. The default value is true for single-line fields and false for multiline fields. Note that for multiline fields, setting blurOnSubmit to true means that pressing return will blur the field and trigger the onSubmitEditing event instead of inserting a newline into the field.

Type	Required
bool	No

`caretHidden`

If true, caret is hidden. The default value is false.

Type	Required
bool	No

`clearButtonMode`

When the clear button should appear on the right side of the text view. This property is supported only for single-line TextInput component. The default value is never.

Type	Required	Platform
enum('never', 'while-editing', 'unless-editing', 'always')	No	iOS

`clearTextOnFocus`

If true, clears the text field automatically when editing begins.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

`contextMenuHidden`

If true, context menu is hidden. The default value is false.

Type	Required
bool	No

`dataDetectorTypes`

Determines the types of data converted to clickable URLs in the text input. Only valid if multiline={true} and editable={false}. By default no data types are detected.

You can provide one type or an array of many types.

Possible values for dataDetectorTypes are:

'phoneNumber'
'link'
'address'
'calendarEvent'
'none'
'all'

Type	Required	Platform
enum('phoneNumber', 'link', 'address', 'calendarEvent', 'none', 'all'), ,array of enum('phoneNumber', 'link', 'address', 'calendarEvent', 'none', 'all')	No	iOS

`defaultValue`

Provides an initial value that will change when the user starts typing. Useful for use-cases where you do not want to deal with listening to events and updating the value prop to keep the controlled state in sync.

Type	Required
string	No

`disableFullscreenUI`

When false, if there is a small amount of space available around a text input (e.g. landscape orientation on a phone), the OS may choose to have the user edit the text inside of a full screen text input mode. When true, this feature is disabled and users will always edit the text directly inside of the text input. Defaults to false.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

`editable`

If false, text is not editable. The default value is true.

Type	Required
bool	No

`enablesReturnKeyAutomatically`

If true, the keyboard disables the return key when there is no text and automatically enables it when there is text. The default value is false.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

`importantForAutofill`

Tells the system whether the individual fields in your app should be included in a view structure for autofill purposes on Android API Level 26+, possible values are auto, no, noExcludeDescendants, yes, yesExcludeDescendants. The default value is auto.

auto: Let the Android System use its heuristics to determine if the view is important for autofill.
no: This view isn't important for autofill.
noExcludeDescendants: This view and its children aren't important for autofill.
yes: This view is important for autofill.
yesExcludeDescendants: This view is important for autofill, but its children aren't important for autofill.

Type	Required	Platform
enum('auto', 'no', 'noExcludeDescendants', 'yes', 'yesExcludeDescendants')	No	Android

`inlineImageLeft`

If defined, the provided image resource will be rendered on the left. The image resource must be inside /android/app/src/main/res/drawable and referenced like

<TextInput
 inlineImageLeft='search_icon'
/>

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	Android

`inlineImagePadding`

Padding between the inline image, if any, and the text input itself.

Type	Required	Platform
number	No	Android

`inputAccessoryViewID`

An optional identifier which links a custom InputAccessoryView to this text input. The InputAccessoryView is rendered above the keyboard when this text input is focused.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS

`keyboardAppearance`

Determines the color of the keyboard.

Type	Required	Platform
enum('default', 'light', 'dark')	No	iOS

`keyboardType`

Determines which keyboard to open, e.g.numeric.

See screenshots of all the types here.

The following values work across platforms:

default
number-pad
decimal-pad
numeric
email-address
phone-pad

iOS Only

The following values work on iOS only:

ascii-capable
numbers-and-punctuation
url
name-phone-pad
twitter
web-search

Android Only

The following values work on Android only:

visible-password

Type	Required
enum('default', 'email-address', 'numeric', 'phone-pad', 'ascii-capable', 'numbers-and-punctuation', 'url', 'number-pad', 'name-phone-pad', 'decimal-pad', 'twitter', 'web-search', 'visible-password')	No

`maxFontSizeMultiplier`

Specifies largest possible scale a font can reach when allowFontScaling is enabled. Possible values:

null/undefined (default): inherit from the parent node or the global default (0)
0: no max, ignore parent/global default
>= 1: sets the maxFontSizeMultiplier of this node to this value

Type	Required
number	No

`maxLength`

Limits the maximum number of characters that can be entered. Use this instead of implementing the logic in JS to avoid flicker.

Type	Required
number	No

`multiline`

If true, the text input can be multiple lines. The default value is false. It is important to note that this aligns the text to the top on iOS, and centers it on Android. Use with textAlignVertical set to top for the same behavior in both platforms.

Type	Required
bool	No

`numberOfLines`

Sets the number of lines for a TextInput. Use it with multiline set to true to be able to fill the lines.

Type	Required	Platform
number	No	Android

`onBlur`

Callback that is called when the text input is blurred.

Type	Required
function	No

`onChange`

Callback that is called when the text input's text changes. This will be called with { nativeEvent: { eventCount, target, text} }

Type	Required
function	No

`onChangeText`

Callback that is called when the text input's text changes. Changed text is passed as a single string argument to the callback handler.

Type	Required
function	No

`onContentSizeChange`

Callback that is called when the text input's content size changes. This will be called with { nativeEvent: { contentSize: { width, height } } }.

Only called for multiline text inputs.

Type	Required
function	No

`onEndEditing`

Callback that is called when text input ends.

Type	Required
function	No

`onFocus`

Callback that is called when the text input is focused. This is called with { nativeEvent: { target } }.

Type	Required
function	No

`onKeyPress`

Callback that is called when a key is pressed. This will be called with { nativeEvent: { key: keyValue } } where keyValue is 'Enter' or 'Backspace' for respective keys and the typed-in character otherwise including ' ' for space. Fires before onChange callbacks. Note: on Android only the inputs from soft keyboard are handled, not the hardware keyboard inputs.

Type	Required
function	No

`onLayout`

Invoked on mount and layout changes with { nativeEvent: {layout: {x, y, width, height}, target } }.

Type	Required
function	No

`onScroll`

Invoked on content scroll with { nativeEvent: { contentOffset: { x, y } } }. May also contain other properties from ScrollEvent but on Android contentSize is not provided for performance reasons.

Type	Required
function	No

`onSelectionChange`

Callback that is called when the text input selection is changed. This will be called with { nativeEvent: { selection: { start, end } } }. This prop requires multiline={true} to be set.

Type	Required
function	No

`onSubmitEditing`

Callback that is called when the text input's submit button is pressed with the argument {nativeEvent: {text, eventCount, target}}.

Type	Required
function	No

Note that on iOS this method isn't called when using keyboardType="phone-pad".

`onTextInput`

Callback that is called on new text input with the argument { nativeEvent: { text, previousText, range: { start, end } } }. This prop requires multiline={true} to be set.

Type	Required
function	No

`placeholder`

The string that will be rendered before text input has been entered.

Type	Required
string	No

`placeholderTextColor`

The text color of the placeholder string.

Type	Required
color	No

`returnKeyLabel`

Sets the return key to the label. Use it instead of returnKeyType.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	Android

`returnKeyType`

Determines how the return key should look. On Android you can also use returnKeyLabel.

Cross platform

The following values work across platforms:

done
go
next
search
send

Android Only

The following values work on Android only:

none
previous

iOS Only

The following values work on iOS only:

default
emergency-call
google
join
route
yahoo

Type	Required
enum('done', 'go', 'next', 'search', 'send', 'none', 'previous', 'default', 'emergency-call', 'google', 'join', 'route', 'yahoo')	No

`rejectResponderTermination`

iOS Only

If true, allows TextInput to pass touch events to the parent component. This allows components such as SwipeableListView to be swipeable from the TextInput on iOS, as is the case on Android by default. If false, TextInput always asks to handle the input (except when disabled). The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

`scrollEnabled`

If false, scrolling of the text view will be disabled. The default value is true. Only works with multiline={true}.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

`secureTextEntry`

If true, the text input obscures the text entered so that sensitive text like passwords stay secure. The default value is false. Does not work with multiline={true}.

Type	Required
bool	No

`selection`

The start and end of the text input's selection. Set start and end to the same value to position the cursor.

Type	Required
object: {start: number,end: number}	No

`selectionColor`

The highlight and cursor color of the text input.

Type	Required
color	No

`selectTextOnFocus`

If true, all text will automatically be selected on focus.

Type	Required
bool	No

`showSoftInputOnFocus`

When false, it will prevent the soft keyboard from showing when the field is focused. The default value is true.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	Android

`spellCheck`

If false, disables spell-check style (i.e. red underlines). The default value is inherited from autoCorrect.

Type	Required	Platform
bool	No	iOS

`textAlign`

Align the input text to the left, center, or right sides of the input field.

Possible values for textAlign are:

left
center
right

Type	Required
enum('left', 'center', 'right')	No

`textContentType`

Give the keyboard and the system information about the expected semantic meaning for the content that users enter.

For iOS 11+ you can set textContentType to username or password to enable autofill of login details from the device keychain.

For iOS 12+ newPassword can be used to indicate a new password input the user may want to save in the keychain, and oneTimeCode can be used to indicate that a field can be autofilled by a code arriving in an SMS.

To disable autofill, set textContentType to none.

Possible values for textContentType are:

none
URL
addressCity
addressCityAndState
addressState
countryName
creditCardNumber
emailAddress
familyName
fullStreetAddress
givenName
jobTitle
location
middleName
name
namePrefix
nameSuffix
nickname
organizationName
postalCode
streetAddressLine1
streetAddressLine2
sublocality
telephoneNumber
username
password
newPassword
oneTimeCode

Type	Required	Platform
enum('none', 'URL', 'addressCity', 'addressCityAndState', 'addressState', 'countryName', 'creditCardNumber', 'emailAddress', 'familyName', 'fullStreetAddress', 'givenName', 'jobTitle', 'location', 'middleName', 'name', 'namePrefix', 'nameSuffix', 'nickname', 'organizationName', 'postalCode', 'streetAddressLine1', 'streetAddressLine2', 'sublocality', 'telephoneNumber', 'username', 'password')	No	iOS

`passwordRules`

When using textContentType as newPassword on iOS we can let the OS know the minimum requirements of the password so that it can generate one that will satisfy them. In order to create a valid string for PasswordRules take a look to the Apple Docs.

Type	Required	Platform
string	No	iOS

`style`

Note that not all Text styles are supported, an incomplete list of what is not supported includes:

borderLeftWidth
borderTopWidth
borderRightWidth
borderBottomWidth
borderTopLeftRadius
borderTopRightRadius
borderBottomRightRadius
borderBottomLeftRadius

see Issue#7070 for more detail.

Styles

Type	Required
Text	No

`textBreakStrategy`

Set text break strategy on Android API Level 23+, possible values are simple, highQuality, balanced The default value is simple.

Type	Required	Platform
enum('simple', 'highQuality', 'balanced')	No	Android

`underlineColorAndroid`

The color of the TextInput underline.

Type	Required	Platform
color	No	Android

`value`

The value to show for the text input. TextInput is a controlled component, which means the native value will be forced to match this value prop if provided. For most uses, this works great, but in some cases this may cause flickering - one common cause is preventing edits by keeping value the same. In addition to setting the same value, either set editable={false}, or set/update maxLength to prevent unwanted edits without flicker.

Type	Required
string	No

Methods

`.focus()`

focus();

Makes the native input request focus.

`.blur()`

blur();

Makes the native input lose focus.

`clear()`

clear();

Removes all text from the TextInput.

`isFocused()`

isFocused();

Returns true if the input is currently focused; false otherwise.

Known issues

react-native#19096: Doesn't support Android's onKeyPreIme.
react-native#19366: Calling .focus() after closing Android's keyboard via back button doesn't bring keyboard up again.
react-native#26799: Doesn't support Android's secureTextEntry when keyboardType="email-address" or keyboardType="phone-pad".

Edit this page

Last updated on 7/26/2020 by Kien Nguyen

Reference#

Props#

allowFontScaling#

autoCapitalize#

autoCompleteType#

autoCorrect#

autoFocus#

blurOnSubmit#

caretHidden#

clearButtonMode#

clearTextOnFocus#

contextMenuHidden#

dataDetectorTypes#

defaultValue#

disableFullscreenUI#

editable#

enablesReturnKeyAutomatically#

importantForAutofill#

inlineImageLeft#

inlineImagePadding#

inputAccessoryViewID#

keyboardAppearance#

keyboardType#

maxFontSizeMultiplier#

maxLength#

multiline#

numberOfLines#

onBlur#

onChange#

onChangeText#

onContentSizeChange#

onEndEditing#

onFocus#

onKeyPress#

onLayout#

onScroll#

onSelectionChange#

onSubmitEditing#

onTextInput#

placeholder#

placeholderTextColor#

returnKeyLabel#

returnKeyType#

rejectResponderTermination#

scrollEnabled#

secureTextEntry#

selection#

selectionColor#

selectTextOnFocus#

showSoftInputOnFocus#

spellCheck#

textAlign#

textContentType#

passwordRules#

style#

textBreakStrategy#

underlineColorAndroid#

value#

Methods#

.focus()#

.blur()#

clear()#

isFocused()#

Known issues#

Reference

Props

`allowFontScaling`

`autoCapitalize`

`autoCompleteType`

`autoCorrect`

`autoFocus`

`blurOnSubmit`

`caretHidden`

`clearButtonMode`

`clearTextOnFocus`

`contextMenuHidden`

`dataDetectorTypes`

`defaultValue`

`disableFullscreenUI`

`editable`

`enablesReturnKeyAutomatically`

`importantForAutofill`

`inlineImageLeft`

`inlineImagePadding`

`inputAccessoryViewID`

`keyboardAppearance`

`keyboardType`

`maxFontSizeMultiplier`

`maxLength`

`multiline`

`numberOfLines`

`onBlur`

`onChange`

`onChangeText`

`onContentSizeChange`

`onEndEditing`

`onFocus`

`onKeyPress`

`onLayout`

`onScroll`

`onSelectionChange`

`onSubmitEditing`

`onTextInput`

`placeholder`

`placeholderTextColor`

`returnKeyLabel`

`returnKeyType`

`rejectResponderTermination`

`scrollEnabled`

`secureTextEntry`

`selection`

`selectionColor`

`selectTextOnFocus`

`showSoftInputOnFocus`

`spellCheck`

`textAlign`

`textContentType`

`passwordRules`

`style`

`textBreakStrategy`

`underlineColorAndroid`

`value`

Methods

`.focus()`

`.blur()`

`clear()`

`isFocused()`

Known issues